[Whimsy_Carver]

This is probably old news for many but maybe someone can use this helpful hint/trick. I recently started carving some whimsical characters and gnome houses in cottonwood bark which I only recently learned about. I like to sketch before I carve and I had trouble “planning” my bark projects. I have an old flatbed scanner next to the PC and thought why not scan the bark (yeah, I know it makes lousy dark images) and use that to draw (and erase) on to sorta map out what might work on the piece of bark. The scanner has a 14” bed so there are size limits. And, since you can’t close the lid on a 3”-4” thick piece of bark you need something to reflect the light to at least outline the image. I had an old towel handy so I just threw it over the bark lying on the scanner bed. I think something lighter color would work better and I think next I’ll try aluminum foil.
Anyway, it’s worked for me and it’s cheap and easy and I wanted to share. I have attached two scans of bark, one plain, one on which I did some “planning” drawing, and a photo of the finished house.

[mark yundt]

Old news is good news. Yeah,,those scanners/copiers can be handy. With my copiers I can do 3D images. I've put in models or figures,,copied them and redrew them into front and side images. And then either blew them up or will shrink them depending what I need. For long pieces I just keep moving the piece along,,take all the copies and line them up and tape them together for one big image. If I need really big images I then take the copies to a blueprint co and can and have had them made up into 4 ft wide by 6 ft long patterns. Bigger too if I do the same thing with their copies as well and tape multiple images together. It's a good and handy trick.